Thank Goodness 2014 Is Over … Bring on 2015

2014 was a brutal year on many fronts.Yes, traditionally people kick off the New Year on an up beat and happy note … and I’ll get there … but it was a brutal year.

For those looking backwards through rose coloured glasses, I am not. In the aviation world we had a number of major disasters, we have a Boeing 777-200 that just vanished that will keep conspiracy theorists going for years, commercial space travel had a major catastrophic disaster that hopefully doesn’t delay its advancements too long and while every year has crashes and incidents, 2014 seemed to be more than most years.

2014 saw the last commercial passenger flight of my beloved three-holers, as the DC-10 was retired, as was it’s successor the MD-11, as well as the British Royal Air Force retiring my favourite aircraft, the L-1011.

On a personal front, I let Flying With Fish lapse. Despite some fantastic professional projects last year, including leading a national campaign for Airbnb and building a global social campaign for SkyTeam that took me to 15 cities, 13 countries and 6 continents in less that two weeks, it had been a brutal year and some things had to be sidelined to focus on what is really important to me … my family, my kids.

I let many major stories slip through my fingers, including one where I was days ahead of everyone in my coverage, but chose to use Twitter instead of my blog in an effort to balance work and life … it was an experiment I would do very differently if I had to do it all over again.

For me, the past year was like a bad country & western song. My landlord sold the house; I moved and had no where to go for a while; I was temporarily unable to leave South Korea due to an immigrations issue; I was briefly detained on arrival in China (OK, no country song discusses South Korea or China): my old dog, my companion for nearly 12 years, passed away suddenly in Connecticut while I was all alone in a hotel room in London in the middle of the night …and a few hours late, like something scripted from a 1980’s movie, at the exact moment my flight’s wheels touched down in Paris, while l was listing to Counting Crows these lyrics came through my headsets …“and I have been to Paris, and I have been to Rome, and I have gone to London and I am all alone … and I have been to Paris, and I have been to Rome, I’ve gone to New York City, and I am all alone. All alone.”

So … now that 2014 is over, all I can say is onward and upward. I have no idea what 2015 has in store for me, but I know this. I miss writing Flying With Fish. I miss covering aviation security and the airline industry. I miss doing what I love and I miss finding the time and energy to do it … so I’ll just find the time somewhere and work to make it happen.

For those of you who have been emailing me asking where I have gone … I am working on coming back and getting everything in order to do that.

OK … enough with the personal stuff … I have a lot of writing to catch up on.

Comments

I agree. 2014 was tough. I also lost a dear k9 friend and near financial collapse. My wife and I both changed jobs and transferred to worse jobs than we had. Good rid dens 2015. Ready to tackle 2015 and make it better.

About Me

Fish has been covering aviation and transportation security issues since September 15, 2001, after walking away from Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan following four days of documenting the worst aviation security disaster in history.

Having spent more than a decade-and-a-half as a full-time photojournalist, Fish now divides his time between building social media and social commerce strategies and solutions for global travel brands, along with researching aviation and transportation security.

Growing up at the end up New York's JFK International Airport's Runway 4R/22L probably explains Fish’s enjoyment of watching planes fly overhead. When not working or shooting photos, Fish can be found playing with (and cleaning up after) his three kids, chasing his dogs, standing in the kitchen cooking, monitoring radios public safety and federal radios and of course cheering for the Red Sox.

You can find Fish on Twitter at @flyingwithfish …and … join Fish every Thursday at 3:30pm EST as he hosts the weekly #TNI #Travel Chat on Twitter.